Louis van Gaal has been told he is free to break the world transfer record to bring the right player to Manchester United.

Last year Real Madrid set the record by signing Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur for £86m, eclipsing the £80m they had paid United four years earlier for Cristiano Ronaldo. Van Gaal, who will take charge of United for the first time in a friendly against LA Galaxy that kicks off in the early hours of tomorrow morning UK time, has been told his transfer activity will not be constrained by money.

“It’s difficult to deal in hypotheticals based on lots of different things,” Ed Woodward said. “The reality is that we’re not afraid of spending significant amounts of money in the transfer market.”

The club’s executive vice-chairman added: “Whether it’s a record or not doesn’t really resonate with us. What resonates is an elite player that the manager wants who is going to be a star for Manchester United.”

United have already paid £27m for Southampton’s Luke Shaw and £28.5m for Athletic Bilbao’s Ander Herrera. The £37.5m paid to Chelsea for Juan Mata in January is a United club record but Woodward says United will not be put off spending what it takes to secure the players of Van Gaal’s choice. “Of course it’s in our capabilities,” he said. “You guys think about the money in a way that I don’t. I get pointed in the direction of a target that the manager wants and there is an assessment of what that might cost and I’ll negotiate hard to do the best I can on the trade.

“I stand by what I said – there is no budget. We are in a very strong financial position. We can make big signings. That doesn’t mean we go and throw money around. Louis is the manager. We have a lot of scouting output through the last 12 months, flagging up various things to us. Louis is the one that makes the ultimate decision around who he wants in the squad. I’m not going to force feed him with a player that he hasn’t selected.”

Although Van Gaal wants to assess the squad Woodward says no time is being lost with regard to signings. “We’re still looking at options. We’re not sitting on our hands waiting for Louis. He is very good at communicating clearly what he wants.”

With Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic having left, United need at least one central defender, potentially another left-back, and are still chasing another central midfielder despite Herrera’s arrival.

Although Germany’s World Cup winning central defender Mats Hummels is wanted by Van Gaal, Dortmund are unlikely to agree to sell as the club have already lost Robert Lewandowski to Bayern Munich. Yet with Ilkay Gundogan having two years left on his contract at Dortmund and his fellow central midfielder Marco Reus, whose terms end in 2017, having a buyout clause activated next summer, United recognise the situation at the German club is fluid.

While Fiorentina’s Juan Cuadrado is not thought to be high on Van Gaal’s list, the Ajax midfielder Daley Blind, is on the manager’s radar, along with countryman Stefan de Vrij, the Feyenoord defender, and Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen, though it is not thought any deal for him would currently involve a United player in part-exchange with Arsenal. The United manager is an admirer of Roma’s Kevin Strootman, though the midfielder is recovering from a knee injury so any transfer may not occur until January.

While United understand Real Madrid’s Ángel di María is for sale he is not currently being considered.

Woodward said the record £750m kit deal signed with Adidas was evidence that despite United not being in Europe next season, they are the world’s biggest club. “What the deal shows and what we’re seeing with everything we’re doing from a commercial perspective, talking to agents, talking from a player’s perspective about wanting to come to us, we are the biggest club in the world, there’s no question about that,” he said.

Despite the departures of Ferdinand and Vidic having left Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling as the sole recognised central defenders Van Gaal has been informed by United’s medical department the trio can expect to enjoy a campaign in which all will be the freest of injury they have been in their careers.

Woodward admits that his first 12 months in charge of United following David Gill’s resignation as the chief executive have been trying. Yet he believes Van Gaal has restored the aura to the 20-times champions thatwas lost during the season under David Moyes.

“It was a challenging year. In an ideal situation I would have worked with [Sir] Alex [Ferguson] for a year. I feel a lot more positivity in terms of this coming season. Part of that is simply because of what Louis did at the World Cup.”

After Van Gaal twice mentioned the club’s commercial links at his unveiling, Woodward denied these were an issue for the manager. “We are a different sized club. You have not experienced what being a Manchester United manager is until you have been Manchester United manager.”